THE SONG OF KACHA.
Argument. The Pantheistic views of the soul as the one in all, is shown
in the song of Kacha.
Vasishtha said:—On this subject I will tell you, Ráma! the holy song
which was sung of old by Kacha, the son of Vrihaspati—the preceptor of
the gods.
2. As this son of the divine tutor, resided in a grove in some part of
the mount Meru (the Altain chain—the homestead of the gods); he found
the tranquility of his spirit in the Supreme soul; by means of his
holy devotion.
3. His mind being filled with the ambrosial draughts of divine
knowledge, he derived no satisfaction at the sight of the visible
world, composed of the five elemental bodies.
4. Being rapt in his mind with the vision of the Holy Spirit, he saw
nothing else beside him, and then fervently uttered to himself in the
following strain.
5. What is there for me to do or refuse or to receive or reject, and
what place is there for me to resort or refrain from going to, when
this whole is filled by the Divine Spirit (_to pan_), as by the water
of the great deluge.
6. I find pleasure and pain inherent in the soul, and the sky and all
its sides contained in the magnitude of the soul. Thus knowing all
things to be full of the holy spirit, I forget and sink all my pains in
my spirit.
7. The spirit is inside and outside of all bodies, it is above and
below and on all sides of all. Here, there and every where is the same
spirit, and there is no place where it is not.
8. The spirit abides every where and all things abide in the spirit;
all things are self-same with the spirit, and I am situated in the same
spirit.
9. There is nothing intelligent or insensible which is not the spirit,
all is spirit and so am I also. The spirit fills the whole space and is
situated in every place.
10. I am as full of that spirit and its ineffable bliss, as the all
encompassing water of the great deluge. In this manner was Kacha musing
in himself in the bower of the golden mountain. (The Altain chain is
called the golden mountain for its abounding in gold mines).
11. He uttered the sound Om (_on_ or amen), and it rang on all sides as
the ringing of a bell; he first uttered a part of it the vocal part—o,
and then the nasal—n, which tops it as a tuft of hair. He remained
meditating on the spirit in his mind, not as situated in or without it
(but as the all pervasive soul).
12. Thus Ráma! did Kacha continue to muse in himself and chant his holy
hymn, being freed from the foulness of flesh, and rarefied in his
spirit like the breath of the wind. His soul was as clear as the
atmosphere in autumn, after dispersion of the dark clouds of the rainy
season.